TRADITIO STUDIES IN ANCIENT AND MEDIEVAL

HISTORY, THOUGHT AND RELIGION

EDITORS:

JOHANNES QUASTEN Prof esso1· of Ancient Church History The Catholic University of America

STEPHAN KUTTNER

Prnfessor of the History of Ca11011 Law Tl1e Cat/10/ic University of / /111erica

VOLUME I

COSMOPOLITAN SCIENCE & ART SERVICE CO., !Ne. New York

1 943

Oblate f at; ··-· - . _.~ i..O rdl House San Juan, Texas

VIVUM SAXUJ\1I, VIVI LAPIDES

THE CONCEPT OF "LIVING STONI~" IN CLASSICAL AND Cinns'l'L\.N AN'l'IQUI'l'Y

BY J. C. PLUMPE

Among the comparatively rare ic"cppaO'm To7rov included by Vergil in his epic,1 is the description (Aen. 1.159-169) of the Libyan estuary which gives harbor to the remnants of the Trojan fleet. T he Homeric pattern (Od. 13 .9G-112) to which Vergil is indebted, is a portrayal of the haven of Phorcys, consisting in largest part of a picture of the cave sacred to the N aiades (105-112) . As has been pointed out,~ the cave is an idyllic abode brimming with life . All objects mentioned as furni shing the interior are described as being of stone: mixing vessels and jars in which bees store up honey, and very tall looms "whereon the nymphs weave raiment of sea-purple." It should be observed also that all the articles are, in the normal order of things, hand-fashioned and adventitious­human imports.

In a setting conveying majestic and mystic awe, primeval peace and silence­and to this come the defessi Aeneadac (157)- Vergil very briefly describes the cave that is discovered near the Libyan landing-place thus :

Aen. l.lGG Fronte sub adversa scopulis pendentibus antrum, Intus aquae dulces, vivoque sedilia saw, Nympharum domus.

Here there is no busy activity of bees and nymphs, no rippling and murmuring of vom' cdEvaovrn (Od. 13.109); but aquac dulcedo and sedendi opportunitas, as Donatus points out (Georgii 39.2G), invite the weary and thirsty seafarers, without breaking the spell of calm and quietude. However, in this picture of still-life, so carefu lly differentiated from the portrayal given by Homer, the attribut ion of li fe to the rock (vivo saxo) that forms the seats is striking.

Evidently Scrvius received the same impression, for he offers natural·i as a synonym for vivo (Thilo-Ifogcn 1.67). This suggestion has been adopted uni­versally by modern commentators. More or less elucidating rema rks such as the following are added in the better-known school editions : "vivo scd-dia saxo: i. e., natural seats, not hewn out by hand" (Bennett); "vivo saxo: i. e., in its natural site, and so endowed with the life of nature" (Allen-Greenough). The latter part of this explanation contains reflection definitely worth remembering for the following. Again: "vivo, i. e., natural, uncut, unquarried; one might

1 Concerning such topographical descriptions in t he ,ieneid see IL H einze , Vergil's epische 1'echnilc (Leipzig, 31928) 250; 396-398; B. Rehm, "Das geogrnphische Bild des al ten Italien in Vergils Aeneis," Philologus Supplbd. 24.2 (1032) 72-75; 78-83; 96; J . Gislason, Die N aturschilderungen w1d N aturgleichnisse in Vergils 1lencis (cliss . Mi.inster: Emsclctten, 1037) 18-35.

2 By Gislason, op . cit . 39, who has contrasted well (36-40) the entire description with the Vergilian counterpart .

2 'l'llADITIO

easily think of such rock as still living" (Knapp). But what is rock that is "still living"? Are we perhaps to suppose tha t the poet had in mind rock of organic origin, still in the process of concretion? Or, if such a geological phe­nomenon was not present in the poet's mind , on ,,·hat observation did he conceive of rock as vivwn saxum-"not hewn, but natural, and as i't were growing" (Conington)?

Later, in a description of Aeneas 's fligh t from the Cyclopes, V ergil employs the phrase a second time:

Aen. 3.688 V ivo praetervehor ostia saxo Pantagiae Megarosque sinus Thapsumque iacentem.

Regarding this passage Servius advises us (Thilo-Hagen 1.433) to think ofvivo sa.1:0 as: vivi saxi, ablativum pro geneti\'o, vel viva sa:rn habentia. While the ablative singular of material is readily understood without benefit of the com­mentator's remark, his mention of viva saxa suggests the observation, to be re-formulated farther on, that neither Vergil nor his comtemporary to whom we shall turn presently, ever write vivis saxis, with the metre permitting the use of the plural for vivo sa.1:0 in every case . The ostia quite certainly refer to the walls of rock forming the banks of the little Pan tagias river. The phrase, vivo saxo, a German scholar explains, 3 effects a contrast to a man-made breakwater. This parallels the poet's effort to describe and differentiate the Libyan cave and all it contains as an antrwn naturale. It further seems pertinen t to rem::trk that quite evidently the ostia consist of rock or rocks rising from, indeed, f rom beneath the river's edge, just as the less conspicuous sedilia emerge from and out of the cave's floor.

A search of Ovid's lines for recmrences of the figure , living rock , and for further light to explain it is abundantlv rewarded . Om first example plainly contains a reminiscence of the first pass;ge considered from Vergil. It describes ~he Nymphs taking their places after having sworn to act as impa rtial arbiters m the contest forced upon the Muses by the foolish d::iughters of Pierns :

M et. 5.316 E lectae iurant per f!umina nymphae Factaque de v'ivo pressere sedilia saxo.

The seats of living stone are in the springs- flowing water, let us remember­sa~recl to the nymphs on Mt. Helicon, Hippocrene and Aganippe (3 12).

The combination recurs, again descriptive of haunts frequented only by the sons and daughters of primitive nature deities, in the lines in which Polyphemus makes the t · l · · i· tl 1 · moun ·ams am waves tremble \\·ith his bellowmg praises o ie nymp 1

Galatea. Adding an inventory of his own abundance, he s tates in pa rt:

M et. 13.810 Sunt mihi, pars montis, vivo pendentia saxo Antra, quibus nee sol medio sentitur in aestu, N ec sen titur hi ems.

3

O. Lrosin, P. Vergili Maronis Aeneis, 2 (3 eel. by L. H eitkamp: Gotlrn, 1892) 197: "Vivo saxo im Gcgensatz zu Hafcnbauten von .Menschenhand."

VIVUM SAXUM, VIVI LAI'IDES 3

Polyphemus stresses the size of his cave : it is so spacious that a considerable part of a mountain is his. It overhangs his domain,·1 thus offering easier protec­tion of his orchards and vineyards, the products of which are extolled in the verses following. The living rock which forms the beetling cave, is one with the moun tain--pars ·mantis.

A line found in the suicide-paraclausithyron inserted by Ovid in t he following book of the il!fetamorphoses adds a very illuminating detail for our understanding of vivum saxum.6 !phis has loved in vain ; the doorposts of his beloved, upon which he has hung many garlands dewed with his tears, will now receive his noose; for Anaxarete is "more cruel than the surging sea at the decline of the haedi, harder than iron which the Norican fire refines,"

Met. 14.713 Et saxo quad adhuc vivum radice tenetur­

"harder than rock that is kept alive by its root." Though the fine Vergil-scholar Knapp does not seem to have recalled this

verse, it is an excellent confirmation of his suggestion (above, 1 f.) in explanation of Aen. 1.167: "One might easily think of such rock as st·ill living" ( = quad adhuc viv111n). Of course, even in the most ordinary Latin prose, hills, mountains, buildings, and the like, have radices: that upon which anything rests-"bases, " "foundations,'' etc. (cf. Harper's Lat. Diet. s. v.); and the prose-bound reader in the present case might think only of "rock firmly anchored in its native state." But to the poets Vergil and Ovid such rock has grown, and still (ad/we) grows, out of the earth (or water) in which it is nourished by, and anchored by, roots, not by stratum upon stratum. However, before this is developed further, a number of other passages await our inspection .

Discussing the ancient custom of throwing the Argei, stuffed effigies of old men, from the Sublician bridge on the Ides of l\fay or the day before, Ovid invokes Father Tiber to relate the true origin of the rite. The god raises his head from the river's channel and proceeds to trace the practice to Hercules's visit in Italy. When the god has finished, he disappears again:

F'asti 5.661 Et subiit vivo rorantia sa.w Antra: leves cursum sustinuistis, aquae.

Here there is li ttle calling for observation: once again there is flowing water, though standing still momentarily. The fact that the aquae are personified and

4 I doubt very much whether the uncouth giant, into whose mouth the poet deftly puts most prosaic and clumsy language, means "vaulted ceilings" (Siebelis-Stange, Souchier, Stuart, etc.) when speaking of -vivo pendenlfo saxo anlra. Inaccessible to enemies, his mountain abode overl ooks (hangs over) his proper ty , calling to mind the domestic arrange­men t of many a rurnlist in the mountains today. The prrssagc suggests an interesting parallel, lines quoted from an unknown poet by Cicero ('1'1isc. 1.37 = 'l'rag. frg. inc . 73):

Adsum atque aclvenio Acherunte vix via al ta atque ardua Per spclnncas sax is slruclas asper is, pendentibus, Maxumi s . ..

6 T hi s and other examples of t he ancient story of Love's Revenge receive consideration in the latest study on t he subject: F. 0 . Copley, "The Suicicle-Paraclausithyron: A Study of Ps .-Theocritus, Idyll xxm," 'l'A.Phri 71 (1!)40) 52-61.

4 'l'HADI'l'IO

addressed, is intended perhaps to contribute to the pictun' of the river god represented as acting and speaking and of the sa.1.;Wn described as vivum. The word rorantia will be remembered la ter. In the tas teful juxtaposition of attributes and nouns, tbe recurrence of anlra should a lso be noted.

These antra arc found again in passages in which pwne:c vivas is used in place of vivum saxum. Thus, if we turn to an earlier passage in the Fasti, we are told how Faunus espied the lVIaeonian queen, Omphale, accompanied by her parasol­bearing slave, Hercules. Arriving at the encl of a Journey, she entered the grove of Bacchus and the vineyards of Tmolus ; there Omphale

Fasti 2.315 Antra subit, tofis laqueata ct pumice vivo; Garrulus in primo limine rivus erat.

I have added line 316 to call attention once more to the very frequent presence of flowing water in the primi tive nature scenes we have been considering. Pumice, it is clear, is a convenient substitute for sa:co, undesirable in the fifth hexametric foot; and pumice vivo has been treated as synonomous with vivo saxo, being translated also by " living rock" (Frazer and others) . However, con­sidering the combination with tojis, the substitution is perhaps also a felicitous choice, contributing a specific realistic touch to stone or rock that is described as vivwn; the passage following will lend support to this impression.

This passage concerns Actaeon's fateful day. Diana, tired from the hunt, decided to bathe and rest in one of her favorite haunts in the valley of Gargaphie:

111et. 3.157 Cuius in extrcmo est antrum nemorale recessu Arte laboratum nulla: simulaverat artem Ingenio natura suo; nam pumice vivo Et levibus tofis nativum duxerat arcum; Fons sonat a dextra tenui perlucidus unda.

These lines are in effect Ovid's own lucid commentary on all the passages here collected for discussion, and almost shame any labored disquisition on what is actually arte laboratum nulla. Here there is an illustration of truest Nature in her accomplishments : of working with an inborn endowment of her own ('ingenio suo), of infusing herself into materials peculiarly her own (pumice vivo), and of achieving a result all her own (nativwn arcum).6 She is ever alive and active and informs all things, even stone, with life. And to the poet pumice stone is perhaps even peculiarly suggestive of life, as is explained in the following remark

6 Passages that invite comparison are these : T here is a bay in Haemonia fringed by a forest full of myrtle. Within Thetis has a place of concealment:

Met. 11.235 Et specus in medio, na tura factus an arte, Ambiguum, magis arte tamen.

Again, Hippomene and Atalanta make the fatal decision of retiring in a cave within the precincts sacred to the Magna Mater:

Met. 10.691 Luminis exigui fuerat prope tcmpla recessus Speluncae similis, nativo pumice tectus .

VIVUM SAXUM, VIVI LAPIDES 5

by Moriz Haupt: 7 "Pumice vivo: consisting of living pumice stone, that is, resembling a growth rising from the earth, and not something that is dead and detached from it."8 Pumice is usually soft and porous,9 and tufa, if not of volcanic origin, is of the same consistency, being deposited (and therefore growing !) in springs and streams. That such stone, frequently forming by accretion, variegated and constantly varying in appearance, and presenting even tall and slender patterns, can evoke- at least in such instances as las t considered - the idea of growth and life proper to plants and shrnbs and trees, is certainly normal and natural for the poet.

Also, in all the passages considered the form and appearance of the rock described as living is unusual in this respect: it arrests the attention of gods and heroes as having developed and grown, of itself and by a teleology infused by nature, into purposeful and serviceable things- sedilia, ostia, habitable antra-things, therefore, near to life as it is lived primordially on earth .

Again, while rock is vested with its own, inherent factors of life, such as roots and plant-like growth: in most of the lines examined the accompanying scenic or idyllic descriptions contain certain deta ils that of themselves lend the sugges­tion of life in rock or stone. Thus, attention has been called to the constant mention of water in some form or other. Except in the first passage from Vergil,10 the water is always flowing water; and this itself is aqua viva . For example, in Ovid's account of the raven's lie to Apollo the god had commanded the bird:

Fast-i 2.250 Et t enuem vivis fontibus adfer aquam.

When the raven returned at long last, it accused the snake it had brought in place of the water:

259 Hie mihi causa morae, vivarwn obsessor aquarwn. 11

Vergil (Aen. 2.719) and Livy (1A5.6) speak of flumen vivwn. Before them Terentius Varro had defined Jons as: uncle funditur e terra aqua viva.12 As illustrating the origin and nature of such water there also comes to mind a discussion by the younger Seneca. Concerning deep wells dug in arid regions he states (Nat. Quaest. 3.7.3) that men find :

aquarum uberes venas in ea al titudinc, in quam <gutta> non penetrat, ut scias illi c non caelestem essc nee collectivum umorcm, sed, quod dici solet, aquam vivam.

7 D-ie M elamorphosen des P. Ovidi1ts Naso, 1 (9 ed . by IL Ehwald: Berlin, 1915) 134. 8 The Germans, it is interesting to observe, commonly speak of "gewachsener Stein" =

"grown stone." •For examples of Roman poets considering i t thus cf. Harper's Lat. Diel. s. v. Read also

Pliny, Nat. Hist. 36.154. 10 And in thi s ins tance, too, an indication of flowing water can be argued from the plural,

aquae dulces . 11 Cf. a lso Ovid,

Mel. -3 .26f. (Cadmus) iubet ire ministros Et petere e vivis libandas fonlibus wndas.

12 De Ling . Lal . 5.123 ; cf. also Res Rust. 1.11.2.

G TRADI'l'IO

Like rock that emerges from t he living earth and, in the words of Ovid , quod adhuc vivum radice tenetur, aqua viva flows from the veins of the same lVIother Earth .13 Again, as has been seen, the antra into which the god Tiber descended, were vivo rorantia (dripping, as with clew) saxo. Dew, too, is termed " living" by the poet. Ovid speaks of it in a prescription to bathe the hands in it on the feast of the Parilia :

fi'a sti 4.778 Vivo perlue rare manus.1'1

Such dew is ros recens (Lucretius 2.319), morning dew. It belongs in the same world of primitive things with rock in its na tural, untouched condition : it is fresh and unaffec ted by exterior agencies, appearing to live still with the breath given it by nature.

In Roman prose I have noted only one occurrence of the phrase vivum saxwn. Reporting that in the year 2G eleven cities in Asia vied for the distinction of being permitted to erect a temple decreed in honor of Tiberius, Tacitus s tates (Ann. 4.55) that the delegates from Halicarnassus received some consideration. They had claimed that for twelve centuries their town had not been shaken by an ear thquake and that living rock would supply the fou ndation of the edifice:

Paulum addubitatum, quod I-Ialicarnas ii millc ct d uccntos per an nos nullo m otu terrae nutavisse sedes s uas vivoque in saxo funda men ta templi adseveravernn t .

Tacitean prose is of course ever indebted to Vergil's poetic diction, and the passage cited may well contain a Vergilian reminiscence.15 Ovid's frequent use of the "living rock" motif- and two fur ther examples will be noted below­certainly also has its prototypes in the A eneid. And Vergil himself apparently wrote quite independent of Greek patterns in this matter. 16

Fmther, it may be trne that for the ancients "life is everywhere, in everything.

• 13 Among fmther instances of t he phrase aqua viva (cf. ThesLL s . v. "aqua,'' 2.351.35£.)

its use by t he gromatic writers is especially freq uent: cf. F. Blume-IC Luchmann-A. R udorff, Die Sclmjlcn der riim.ischen Feldmesser (Be rlin, 1848-52) 2 Index, 483 . Concerning uliwp \wv (\w~' ), occ mrin g in the Old ,md New T estament, see the proper lexica and con­cordances; also the li terature listed by W. Bauer, Griechisch-Deutsches W iirlerbuch zu den Sehr if ten des N e1ien 1'estame nts ·und der ·ilbrigen urchl"istlichen Litcralitr (Berlin, 31037) 8 · v. uliwp, 138lf. Espec iall y in terest in g is t he early Chri stian requirement , as recorded in t he Di:dache (7.2 Fnnk-J3ih lmeycr), t hat, if available, uliwp fJwv be used in t he conferring of baptism .

1o1 In thi s line vivus ros is not " fl owing water, " as is translated usually. Cf. the com­menta ry by J. G. Frazer , 7'he Fasli of Ovid (London, lD2U) 3.367f. ; also his translation in Ovid's Fasti (Loeb Class . Lib.: London, 1031 ) 2'17: "wash t hy hands in living dew."

15 K . N ip]Jerdcy (J>. Corneliits 'I'acitus erklart 1 [10 ed . by G. Andresen: Berl in, 1004] 359) and other eo m1ncnt.ators compare the phrase vivoque in saxo with t he first Vergili an passage considered above (A.en . 1.167).

rn I have found on ly two isolated phrases that suggest comparison with the Vergili an and Ovid ian passages t reated: Aeschylus ment ions aur6KT,r' ilvrpa (Prom. 301) , Sophocles , auroKrlcrrov, /ioµov< (frg. 332 Pearson). In an epigram by lVIacedonius Cousul, li v ing in t he sixth centu1·y A. D., a lady love is ch ided for having a hear t of livin g stone, '€µ-rrvoo> 'AliJo<: il nth . Pa.l . 5.229.'! Paton.

•

VIVUM SAXUM, VIVI LAPIDES 7

They cannot understand why an oak or a rock should not have life like a man."17

And, indeed, it requires no profound study of primitive animism to understand how the Roman could conceive of water as aqua viva, of fi re-producing flint as lapis vivvs (to be considered somewhat later), of free sulphur as sulphur vivum, 18

of quicklime as cab; viva,19 etc. But it took a poet's observation and imagina­tion- invariably when preoccupied with creating or painting a primitively natural, highly idyllic sccne- -to vest solid and immobile stone, bedrock, with life. Ancl a poet's fiction uivnni saxwn remained. As the prose writer Cicero, who once spoke humorously of the augm Q. Mucius Scaevola as being able to move stones to tears with bis oratory,20 states: 8axa et soli tudines (poetac) voci respondent, bestiae saepe immanes cantu (poetae) flectuntur atque consistunt (Pro Arch. 19). For the normally unimaginative Roman there apparently was no such ready appeal or responsiveness in rock that neither moved nor could be moved- not even after Vergil had given it life and Ovid had repeated the idea often enough to lend it popularity. That the idea did not become a popular one, is also in timated by Servius inasmuch as he explains at its first occunence in the Aeneid that vivo is to be understood as natural?:.21

To return briefly to an observation mad e along the way (p . 2) : natural rock emerging unbroken from land or water is never dcscribecl by the plural, saxa viva. Two apparent exceptions only confirm the rule.

Both occm in Ovid . Preparing the brew that is to rejuvenate Aeson, Medea recounts the powers that are hers to interfere \\·ith the normal course of nature: the streams and clouds and winds obey her-

111 et. 7 .204 Vivaque saxa sua convulsaque robora terra Et silvas moveo . . .

11 J . A. IC Thompson, the Greek Tradil'ion (New York, 1927) 190. See also J . G. Frazer , op. cit., 4.268; I-I. R. Fairclough , Love of Nature Among the Gree/cs and Romans (Our D ebt to Greece and Rome: New York, 1930) 12f.; A. Gcikic, The Love of Nature Among the Roman s (London, 1012) passim; T. Frank, Ver{/1:l, a Biography (New York, 1922) 162f.

i s A di scussion of it by P liny, Nat. Hist . 35.175. Vcrgi l mentions i t in Georg. 3.449 ; Ovid, in Fasli 4 .739; M el. 3.37'! (vivacia sul7;hura); Rem. 11m .. 260. Other instance arc li sted in Harper's Lal. Diel. s. v. "sulfur ."

10 Pliny, Nat. Hist. 29 .51; 31.57; Vitruvius, De Arch. 8.7; etc . 2 0 De Or. 1.245 (M. Antoni us speaking): Lapidcs mchercule omnes fl cre nc lamcntari

cocgisset .. . . 21 Nor has the idea of " living stone," " live stone," etc., become popular to any degree

in English, though an interesting paper (also tnking in to account the names "Livingstone" and "Livingston") could be written on the subject. Already before Dryden's transla tion of the Aeneid appeared (1697), Biddulph in The 'l'ravels of Certa'ine Engli:shinen (1612) 30, mentions a " house .. . being hewed out of the lively rocke." H.obert Lovell in hi s Compleal H islor-ie of ,1nimals and Minerals (1661) 22, offers a para.lie! to sulp/rnr vivum: " Live brim­stone, boiled to the th ickness of honey." These and similar examples are found in the Oxford English D ictionary 6 (Oxford, 1933) s . vv. "lively" adj. l.b, " live" adj. 5.a, " living" pp!. ad j. 2.d. Among modern au thors Browning, Aristophanes' Apology (1875) 152G, speaks of "live rock latent under wave and foam." During t he recent Spanish civil war I noted American newspaper corresponden ts describing t he Toledo fortress-pa.lace of Alcazar as " largely hewn out of living rock" ('I'im.e, Oct. 5, 1936: 21.1.9) and its defenders as Jivin g "clown in the living roc/c" (Columbus Citizen, Sept . 19, 1936: front page) .

8 'l'RADITJO

Here masses of solid rock are torn loose from their prnper lodgrnen t (sua .. . terra = abl. of separation). Hills and mountains arc moved and transposed, not just stones.22

The same is true in a second passage which also concerns the powers of Medea. Abandoned Hypsipile writes to Jason of the enchantress's influence over the moon, sun, and streams ; and she continues :

H er. G.88 Illa loco silvas viuaque saxa movet.23

It is very evident, too, that the plural of saxwn is meant to indicate repetition, that lVIedea performs these violent actions when and where she pleases.

These final passages now urge the question : Are ordinary s tones, stones that are detached from rock or the earth's fl oor, ever termed "live" or " living," in Latin? The affirmative answer involves neither V ergil nor Ovid, but takes us into a very different sphere of thought and letters, independent for the greatest part of all Roman tradition.

II

Regularly, when a separate stone or detached piece of rock is designated as "live" or "living," it is termed lapis vivus (not saxwn vivwn) ; a nd when there is more than one stone, the plural, lapides viui (not saxa viva) is of course employed.

Lapis vivus as a term for flint suggests itself at once, but need not detain long. Stone of this kind obviously is called "living" because when subjected to certain treatment- friction- it responds visibly and because it supplies to man some­thing very vital to his physical life, fire; for which reason it is also called lapis pyrites (\Wo> 7rupirYJ>). Whether in its natural solid state, occurring in veins or irregular masses, it may also have been considered as sax wn vivum, is a negligi­ble consideration: the cases in which flint is roferred to as lap·is vivus, a ll imply separate stones that are put to a useful purpose.2•1

We now turn to Christianity for a long tradition of life associated figuratively and spiritually with stone. The li terary tradition is begun by him whom the Founder of Christianity Himself termed ITETPA, Rocle Having in mind several Messianic allusions to the Savior under the figure of a s tone (I s. 28 .lG "a corner stone," ib·icl. 8.1 4 "a s tone of stumbling," Ps. 117.22 "the stone which the

22 In this connection a striking case of Homeric usage is worth noting for comparison. Already P. Buttmann Lexilo(J'llS (English t ranslation by J. R. Fishlake: London, 61869) 332f., observed t hat in,llomer rr'7p0> is used to designate "a mere stone," whereas rr€rpa

is used for " fi xed rocks" only. The observation is borne out by exceptional usage: when Cyclops sets a rock, rr<rpryv, against the entrance to his cave (Od. 9.243) and the sea heaves because of a. rr<rp 11 hurled by him (ibid. 484), and again when Hesiod's hundred-handed Titans bear rr<rpas 1jA<f3urou~ as weapons (Theo(} . 675), not ordinary stones arc meant, but whole cliffs and mountains broken off and carried away by primitive giants (cf. a lso Passow 's Greek dictionary s . v. rr<rpo.) .

23 G. Showerman, Ovid, Heroides and 11mores (Loeb Class . Lib. : London, 1014) 77, mis­takenly translates: "She charms li fe ( !) into trees and rocks , and moves them from their place ."

. 2

·1 Grattius, Cyneo. 404; P liny, Nat. Hist. 36.138 (note the plural: quos [lapides pyritas]

vivas appellamus); Isidorus, Etym. 16.4.5 .

VIVUM S.\XUi\T, VIVI LAPID ES 9

builders rejected") , St. Peter in his First Epistle, 2.4f., exhorts his addressees as follows :

IlpO~ Ov 7rpouepxOµe110L, A.irJo?J t"Wvra, inrO 0.JJrJpW7rwv µEv G.7ro5f001aµaCTµfvov 7rapG. 0€ OEC:;,

fKAeKrOv EvrLµov, Kai aUrol w~ Alt'Jot. ?;WvrH

oLKoOoµe'i.ucJE oiKos 7rveuµa.rt.K0~, KrE.

Ad quem acceclentes lapidem vivum, ab hominibus quidcm rcprobatum , A Deo :mtem electum et honori (ica tum: et ipsi tamquam lap ides vivi superaedificam ini, domus spiritualis, sqq.

A minimum of exegesis makes this seem fairly apparent : In the natmal order the stones mentioned are building stones-normally most unusual objects to inspire the idea of life . Christ, the lapis angnlaris, the corner stone, and His followcrs- accedentes lapides-form a spiritual edifice, the Church. This chmch is in reality very much of the nature of a Jiving organism (reminding of the other figure of the Church as the mystical body of Christ): its foundation ston e is vivus, living and the source of all life, especially of that which salvation gives ; and the stones joined to the foundation stone and bearing and supporting one another are vivi, pa rtakers of this life. 25

As illustrative of the interpretation which this passage has received by the Latin Church Fathers , I offer some texts from the Enarrationes in Psalmos and the Sennones de Scr·ipturis of St. Augustine.26

In P s. 9G .7 the \\·ish is expressed: confundantur omnes qui adorant sculptilia . Augustine identifi es~ 7 the sculptured things with hand-made idols of stone; and, he states, they should be ashamed, qui adorant lap·ides . He adds, evidently recalling St. Peter's figure: Quia lapides illi mortu.i erant, nos vivum lapidem. in­venimus. The stone idols should not even be called mortui; for, lapides i lli nunqiw.m vixerunt. And he again adds, this time taking support from a Pauline verse (Rom.. G.9) : Lapis au tern noster vivns est, et semper vix-it apud Pa trem, et pro nobis mortuus revi.t,il, et moclo vivit, et mors ei ultra non dominabitur.

In a sermon on Ps. 82.2: Deus, quis similis tibi? St. Augustine gives a some­what different version of the contrast, lavicles v·ivi- lapides mortui.28 Felicitat-

'"Cf. J . Fel ten, Die zwei Briefe des heiligen P etr11 s und dcr Judasbrief (R egensburg, 1929) 74f.; U. H olzmeis ter , "Conuuentarius in Epis tulas SS . Petri et Iuchc Apos t-,olorum, r: Epistub Prima S . P e tri," Curs . S . Ser . 3.13 (P ari s, 1937) 239-247; C. Bigg, "Epistles of St. Peter a nd St . Jude," Intern. Grit. Co mm. (New York, 1905) 128f. The attemp t by H.. Perdelwitz, "Die Mysteri enrcli gion um! clas Problem des l Petrnsbri efes ," Reli:gionsgesch. V ers. it. Vorarb . 11.3 (G iessen , 1911 ) G9f., to link the prese nt passage with cer ta in elements (AltJo, 'fµfu xo•, etc .) in orienta l mystery cul ts, has been e ffectively discountenanced by F . J. Dii lger , Theol. Rev u.e 15 (1 91G) 391. Among the numerous arti cles and studies on the B ibli cal lap is angnlaris I mention t he mos t recent : G. n. L:idner, " The Symboli sm of the Biblical Corner Stone in t he Mediaeval West," Med . S tud . 4 (1942) 43-60.

26 Among t he Greek Christian writers Origcn especially may be mentioned as having frequentl y discussed the AltJo, Kwvr <5' De Prine. 2.11.3: GCS Ori genes 5.186.15 Koctsch:w; I n Lib . I eS1l l'lave hom. 9.1- 3: GCS Origenes 7 .3-tG-318 Baehrens; Sel . ·in P salm . (Ps . 2G A- 6) : MPG 12 .1280A; Sel. in I eremfom 29A : M~PG 13 .577A; Comm. in I oanncm 1.36.265: GCS Origenes 4.47.5-8 Preuschen; (G.22.1 21: 132.21: ibnuro< Altlo<); 10 .35 .228: 209.18; 10.39.2G6: 215.3; 10 .39.268 : 216.9; 10 .40 .273: 217 .32; 13.13.84: 238.9.

27 Enarr. in Ps. XCV I 11: M.PL 37.12H. 28 Senn . de Script. 24.lf.: MP L 38.162f.

-

10 'I'RADI'l'IO

ing his hearers on their zeal against the pagan idols, he applies to them a verse of St. Paul (r Cor. 3.17): that the temple of God is holy and that they are this temple. Their dutiful comportment reflects all the more God 's excellence : lam videte quantum ille vivat , vel quomodo viuat, quando lapides templi sic vivunt! A.nd do they realize what they say and to whom they say it, when they, lapides vivi, tell their divine indweller- habitatori suo : "Deus, quis similis ti bi?" Let them reflect on all the wonders and marvels of the created universe, and then may their every heart and tongue repeat their tribute to God : dignum est hoc, decet hoc lapicles vivas.

He then appeals to their Christian pietas with the wish: L apicles mortui utinam sentiant in se misericordiam lapidwn u·ivorwn! He explains that it is not the builders of temples nor those by whose art iron and stone are fashioned into idols, whom he identifies with "dead s tones"; but rather: homines dico mortuos lapides, quibus dii similes sunt. While it can be said of the lapides vi vi, the faithful, that they have eyes and see, have ears and hear, what is it that the "dead stones" have and that attracts them? Stones! At vero lapides mortui sciunt lapides suos, deos attendunt , adornnt . .. et sacrifi cium ipsi diabolo fiunt. Yet, these must not be abandoned by t he lapides vivi. Augustine asks : E t quid sperandum est de lapidibus mortuis? It is of them that Christ Himself said (Matt. 3.9): Po tens est Deus de lapidibus istis suscitarn :filios Abrahae. Etc.

Again, the phrase in P s. 121.3: Ierusalem quac ac<l ificatur ut civitas, is inter­preted in a Messianic sense as referring to the spiritual ed ifi ce of Christ's Church .~~ David, St. Augustine reasons, 11sed the present "aedifi catur" ; the city of J erusa­lem cannot have been meant, for it was already built: perfecta crat ilia civitas , non aedificabatur. Ra ther, he indicates, it is : ci vitas ad quam currunt in fid e lapides v·ivi, de quibus elicit Petrns, "Et vos tamquam lapides vivi coaedificamini in domum spiritualcm." He further asks and replies : Quid est " lapides v·ivi coaedificamini"? Vivis si credis; si autem credis, efli ceris templum Dei. Re­taining the figure of the stones, the bishop then very ap tly describes how the life of faith is imparted to them: Praeciduntur de montibus lapides per manus praedicantium veritatem, conquadra.ntur ut intrent in structuram sempiternam.3°

Faith, which, as has just been seen, gives spiritual li fe, is in its turn conditioned by love, St. Augustine states at the beginning of his homily on P s. 130.31 To believe in Christ is to love Him and the itniverswn corpus Christi, in humble recognition of our belonging to Him, of our having been redeemed by Him. Thus, he concludes, qui sic creclunt, tamqimm lapides sunt vivi, de quibus templum Dei aedificatur.

Finally, Augustine also idcntifies32 the Church with the mulier fortis of the famous encomium at the close of P roverbs 31.lOff. She is decked with precious stones; and, tam pretiosi sunt lapides isti, ut vivi dicantur. In this instance,

20 Enarr. in P s. CXXI 4 : MPL 37.1620f. •

30 Wi th this and t he beautiful descrip t ion that fo llows-not quoted here (to be found also in the Roman Breviary: Die II infra Octavam Dedicationis Ecclesiae, 2. noct .)-compare the detailed account of the building of the tower of the Church in Pastor H ermae, vis. 3.

31 Enarr. in Ps. CXXX 1: MPL 37.170,!. 32 Senn . de Script. 37.3: MPL 38.223.

VIVUM SAXU!II, VIVI LAPIDES

St. Augustine shows, the " living precious stones" are a abundantes scien tia ct eloqui o et omni instructione Legis . Such was Donatus before he became a schisma tic.

11

limited few: docti, Such was Cyprian .

St. P eter's word of the " living stones" was remembered also in literature very different from the homilies of the Fathers ; for example, in the Venerable Bede's Ecclesiasl'ical History of the Engl-ish Peovle, written three centuries after Augus­tine's death. Describing (4.3) the circumstances that brought on the death of the saintly Ceadda, bishop of Mercia, he states that pestilence befell the land­sen t by God, quae (clades) per mortem carnis vivas Ecclesiae lavides de terrcnis sedibus ad aedificium caeleste transferret . From what follows, a remark tha t many other churchmen were victims, it is seen that the noble scholar uses the metaphor in the same restricted sense as does Augustine in the last example adduced.33

Moreover, we find the lavis vivus mentioned in the liturgy, in a Mass in honor of the protomartyr St. Stephen. I quote the preface of Jl!hssa vi for August 2, found in the oldest compilation of R oman Masses, the so-called Leonine Sacramen tary :31

Vere tligfl in di e sollemnitatis hod icrnae qua scs Stefan us primitivus tuae fidei candidatus ob hoc infidclium persccutione lapidatus est, u t confessionis sacrae lapis vivus exis tere t et quod insigni dccoratus vocabulo praefercbat inpleret corona rnartyrii per .

The striking recurrence of the same ending in candidatus, coronatus, and lavidatus' and the antithetical consideration of the martyr's name and the manner of his death have led to the surmise that the preface may have been adapted from some hymn.35 The play on the name "Stephanus" and the saint's coronation through martyrdom certainly was employed by St . Augustine;36 and for the dextrously conceived antithesis between lavidatus est and ut . . . lavis vivus exi steret patristic parallels are probably also not wanting.

The figure of the " living stones" also appealed t o the Christian poets. Among the Carmina of St. Paulinus of Nola , pupil of Ausonius, there is a vrovempticon addressed to the Dacian bishop N iceta, an intimate friend who visited him in the year 398. He writes :37

237 Euge, N iceta, bone serve Christi, Qui tibi donat lapides in astra Vertere, et vivis sacra templa saxis

Aedificare . 33 But in Bede's commentary I n Primam Epistu lam Petri (MPL 93.48f.) t he metaphor is

applied to t he faithful in general. 3 1 C . L . Feltoe, Sacramcntariwn Leonianwn (Cambridge, 189G) 88.19-23 = MPL 55.8\JC.

R egarding the diffi cul ty of the dates of the commemoration of St. Stephen Protomartyr (Dec. 26), t he I nventio of the same (Aug . 3) , and the feast of Pope St . Stephen (Aug . 2), cf. Feltoc, ix and 196f.; a lso M. Ruic, ''The Leonine Sacrnmcntary : an Analytical Study, II, '' Jour. 'l.'heol. Stud . 10 (1909) 54-57. The preface of illissa vi was called to my attention by the Rev. Dr. Leo F. l\ii illcr.

35 Cf. Fe! toe , l\J7. 30 Enarr. in Ps . L VII 5: MP L 36.695: Ibi primo Stephanus lapidatus esj), et quod vocaba­

tur accepi t. Stephanus enim corona di citur . Humili ter lapicbtus, sec! sublimi ter coronatus. Cf. also Senn. CCXI 1: ilIPL 39.2140.

37 Cann . 17: CSEL 30.92 Hartel = MPL 61.488B .

12 'l'IlADITIO

Verses 239f. are very plainly indebted to the passage in S t. Peter's First Epistle. The substitution of saxis for lapidibus is striking, but is convenient for several reasons : lapides has just been employed in the beautiful figure of "chang­ing stones into stars" ;38 lap1dibus would have been impossible in the Sapphic strophe here used; and, moreover, even in classical Latinity (Vergil, Livy) saxwn is found to signify a (rough) building stone. Possibly, too, there is a recollection of the Vergilian saxum vivwn: Paulinus's great indebtedness to the lVIantuan is well-known.39

Apparently , though, when with the rise of accentual rhythm in the church hymn many prosodic difficulties of quantity had been removed, an effort was made to preserve or restore the word lapides in poetic adaptations of I P eter 2.4f. I quote the opening lines, written in rugged trochaic tetrameters, of the "grand old hymn" for the dedication of a church, Urbs B eata I erusalem (G- 8 cent.) :40

Urbs beata Ierusalem, dicta pacis visio, Quae eonstruitur in caelis vivis ex lapidibits Et angelis coornata ut sponsata comite .

It has been said of this hymn that it "is the ultimate source of inspiration to all the many hymns concerning the New Jerusalem."H It is little wonder, then, that repeatedly attempts were made to "improve" it, especially its rough metre. To quote from the revision introduced under Pope Urban VIII in 1632 and now used in the Roman Breviary:

Coelestis urbs Ierusalem, Beata paeis visio, Quae eelsa de viventibus Saxis ad astra tolleris Sponsaeque ritu cingeris Mille angelorum millibus.

Note the innovation of viventibus for vivis and particularly that within the smooth iambic dimeters it was again necessary to replace lapid'l,bus with saxis:12

.we have thus followed two versions of an unusual metaphor, of stone con­ceived as living and meeting quite accidentally, it would seem, at the inception

as A · . remimscence, perhaps, of Deuteronomy 28.62: qui prim; era tis sicut as tra cacli; or of

Zacharias 9 16. I ·d . · · · · ap1 es sanct1 elevabuntur super terram. 3° Cf M Ph"Ir · M . · . · 1 tp, Zitin Sprachgebrauch des Paulinus van Nola (353-431 n. Chr.) T l. 1 (ch ss. ~~~h: Erl~ngen, 1904) 19- 42 . . . .

. · S. Walpole, Eai·ly Latin Hymns, (Cambridge, 1922) 377-380; J. Julian, A Dic-tio~1ary of Hymnology (New York, 1892) 1198-1200.

Walpole, op . cit . 378 40 c . ; . om pare also the version (Walpole 378, Juli an 1199) of the Breviarium M etropolitanae

ac rimatialis Ecclesiae Senonensis (1726) :

Urbs beata, vera pacis Visio, Jerusalem; Quanta surgit! cclsa saxis Conditur viventibus: Quae polivit, haec cooptat Sedibus suis Deus.

VIVUM SAXUM, VIVI LAPIDES 13

of Christianity . These versions go far apart in their attribution of life, the one finding it in untouched, earth-rooted, earth-nourished rock, the other, in the perfect corner stone that is Christ and in the highly-fini shed and polished stones, Christ's representatives and the faithful in general. These latter, in the words of the hymnist, form an "urbs beata quae construitur in caelis vivis ex lap1:d·ilms," in contrast to the haunts which the primitive denizens of the earth find devised by nature arte nulla from saxwn v·ivwn. In a word, between the version of the Augustan poets and the Christian writers there is all the difference of the natural and the superna tural.

Interestingly enough , though, we are able to point to Vergil's own fi gure of "living rock" as being among the documentary evidence for his early enshrine­ment in the heart of Christianity. This concerns an inscription that takes us back to the Vergilian lines with which we began.

It was found some forty years ago at Ksar (Aln) Mdudja, nine ki lometers north of the ancient Tunisian city and bishopric of Mak tar (L . M actaris), among the ruins of a Roman nym.phaewn:13 The text follows:

+ Intus aque dulces b·iboque seclilia saxa (sic) nimfarum, que Floren ti fun data la bore s(unt). de donis clci .

The numphaewn was built above a spring issuing through a crevice in native rock. The fa<;acle supporting the beautifully wrought basin of the fountain was crowned by a triangular pediment 2.50 m. wide and l.10 m. high, hewn out; of a limestone monoli th. It appears to have been supported at the ends by two columns, no remains of which were found. The inscription runs in a single line, 0.0,!5 m. high, across the frieze. It has been elated as of the fifth or sixth century. The nymphaeum itself originally probably was sacred to the god of the waters, as appears from another inscription found in the rubble : cleo Neptuno Aug. sac[rum.44

Apparently in the present instance an effort was made to give a Christian complexion to an originally pagan nyrnphaeum:15 The choice of the Vergilian

43 Described by IL Cagnat from a squeeze sent by M. Gaucklcr: Bulletin 11rcheologique dii Camile des 'Travaiix Historiques et Scientifiques 60 (189D) CLXVII I f. Cf. CIL 8.4 suppl. 23673; E. Diehl , lnscri:ptiones Latinac Chrislianae V eter es 1 (1925) 785 ( = Diehl, Latcinischc altchr-istl ichc Inschn:flen [21913] 345); Dessau 5732a ; E. E ngstrom, Carmina latina epi­graph-ica post editam collectionem Biicchelerianain in liicem prolala (Leipzig, 1912) D6 . Concerning the ancient nym.haea read the a rticle by 0. H.eutbcr in RE 17 .2 (1937) 1517- 1524.

"'Bull. ,frch . du Com., i bid . CLXX; CIL 8.4 suppl . 23653 . "No mention is made of any ruins of Chri stian ed ifices in t he immedi ate vicinity. If

such had been found also , one mi ght think of the conversion of a nymphaeum in to a Christian canlharus, a type of fountain or fountain -house erected, notably since the time of Constan­tine, in the alriwn of basilicas and other forms of churches (cf. the illustrated article "Cantharc" by F. Cabrol, D11CL 2.2 [1910] 1955- 69; C . M. Kaufmann, Handbuch rler chrisl­lichen ;1rchaologic IPaderborn , 31922] 175£.; 294f.; especially, too, Paulinus's letter of con­dolence to Pammachius , Ep. 13 .13: CSEL 29.94f. Hartel = MPL 61.215A) .

14 'l'RADl1'10

f h · · t' · · h ·t 1· r· pediment passage or t e mscrip ·ion rs owmg per aps to r ;s presence on an ear re . - . ti e

that was replaced · or it may have been copied from other fountams Ill 1

neighbo,hood. It is Ch,·istiani,.d at the beginning by the p,·cfixion of • By•';"; tine e<o,,, and at the end Florentius, who eviden.iy could compose • better hexametec than hi' lapioida could spell, adds to his signature M the don~?d the forrnulary admission that all good things are of God's giving.46 •

1 Florcntius also associate a Christian or supernatural content with the quotation itself that he took from Vergil? Probably not.

The Catholic Un·iversity of America. 4

° Cf. the artic le "Donis <lei (de)" by I-I. Leclercq, DACL 4.2 (1921) 1507-1510; also C. 1\1. Kaufmann, H andbuch de1· altchristlichen Epigraphik (Frei burg i. Br., 1917) 417£.